RTD OKs $17 million FasTracks station in Longmont

The Regional Transportation District on Tuesday approved $17 million for a Longmont park-n-Ride station. The station eventually will be the end-of-the-line stop for the Northwest train line.

Mayor Bryan Baum got the news by text message during Tuesday's City Council meeting. He praised the move, noting how long the city had been lobbying for it.

"This is huge for the city of Longmont," Baum said. "We just got our transportation hub right here."

The money would come from a $305 million RTD surplus.

Other projects funded -- each with a $90 million price tag -- would extend express toll lanes across U.S. 36, extend light rail along Interstate 225 from Parker Road to East Iliff Avenue, and build part of the North Metro train line from Denver's Union Station to the home of the National Western Stock Show.

The money could be spent as early as May.

The Longmont station is planned for a site near First Avenue and Terry Street.

FasTracks, a regional commuter rail system, originally was supposed to be finished in 2017. But the project ran into rising costs and smaller-than-expected tax collection. RTD staff had projected that without another source of revenue, the system might not be complete until 2042.

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That had left many in Longmont less than satisfied, especially because the city's rail service was expected to come at the tail end of the project.

"We want that line before we die," former Councilwoman Mary Blue said during an RTD presentation in March 2010.

However, the second source of revenue still is in question. The RTD board approved a financial plan for FasTracks that assumed passage of a 0.4 percent sales tax increase in 2012, but it will wait until May to decide whether to pursue the ballot measure this year instead.

RTD general manager Phil Washington said the agency would review a number of "triggers" to judge whether a 2011 election could be won. Those include the state of the economy, support from stakeholders and whether there was financial support for waging a campaign.

Last week, the Coalition for Smart Transit -- a pro-FasTracks group -- said backers of the program probably would lose an election if it were held this year.

"Based on recent research, we do not believe that 2011 is the year to ask for any tax increase," the coalition said in a letter to RTD directors.

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